South Korea’s tidal flats inscribed as UNESCO world heritage

South Korea’s “gaetbeol,” or Korean tidal flats, were inscribed onto UNESCO’s world heritage list on Monday. The final decision on the tidal flats’ listing was made during the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee which took place in Fuzhou, China. The meeting was held online due to the global pandemic. A total of four tidal flats across the country’s coastal areas -- Seocheon in South Chungcheong Province, Gochang in North Jeolla Province, Sinan, Bo

July 27, 2021

Boryeong Mud Festival named as one of 3 major festivals in Asia

BORYEONG -- The annual Boryeong Mud Festival has been selected as one of Asia's three major festivals by an international festival association, a local government said Tuesday. According to the city government of Boryeong, about 190 kilometers south of Seoul, its popular mud festival was designated as one of the Three Major Festivals of Asia by the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) Asia. The two other festivals that received recognition were the annual Harbin Internationa

July 27, 2021

S. Korean tidal flats listed as UNESCO world heritage

South Korea's tidal flats have been officially inscribed as a UNESCO world natural heritage despite receiving a deferral in a preliminary review, cultural heritage authorities said Monday.  Seoul has been pushing to register "getbol," or "Korean tidal flats," on UNESCO's world heritage list in the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee taking place in Fuzhou, China, online. The decision came as a surprise, considering that getbol was deferred from the list of pot

July 26, 2021

Culture Ministry to inject W291.8b toward COVID-19 relief

Some 291.8 billion won ($253.3 million) has been set aside for the second round of COVID-19 supplementary budget this year for the culture, sports and tourism sectors. Of the total extra budget, 141.8 billion won will be allocated for job creation in the culture industry and for a coupon program to encourage domestic demand for culture, sports and tourism, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Sunday in announcing the new supplementary budget. The 150 billion won secured through t

July 25, 2021

Culture Ministry amends translation guidelines for kimchi

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday announced that it had made some changes to the translation guidelines for kimchi, which were published in July 2020. The new guidelines state that kimchi’s proper Chinese translation is “xin qi.” The ministry deleted a part that said “pao cai” -- a pickled vegetable dish eaten in China -- is an acceptable translation for kimchi, as it is the name that is already widely used in China. The amendments came aft

July 23, 2021

Exhibition displaying VR content on Oscar-winning “Parasite” kicks off in Paris

The Korean Cultural Center in Paris on Thursday announced that it has kicked off the special exhibition “Korea: Cubically Imagined,” displaying diverse types of immersive content including one that allows the viewer to look through the houses from the Oscar-winning “Parasite” film. The virtual reality content at the exhibition will show the opulent home of the rich Park family and halfway underground home of the struggling Kim family from “Parasite.” &ldquo

July 23, 2021

Business support for arts drops during COVID-19: report

Korean businesses‘ support for the local arts scene decreased in 2020 as pandemic shutdowns dealt a devastating blow to the country, a report released Wednesday by the Korea Mecenat Association showed. Corporate funding for the art industry dropped 14.6 percent on-year to 177.8 billion won ($154.5 million) in 2020, when 390 companies helped finance 953 art projects, the report showed. In 2019, 547 companies spent 208.1 billion won on 1,431 projects. “It seems that corporations&rs

July 21, 2021

Summer Korean style is only a click a way

Learning about summer Korean style is only a click away from anywhere around the world. The Korean Culture and Information Service, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced Friday that 27 Korean Cultural Centers around the world would be offering cultural programs such as food, music and films that introduce how summer is enjoyed in Korea. The programs will be held online, complying with the respective governments’ COVID-19 guidelines, according to KOCIS, which opera

July 16, 2021

King Sejong statue to go up in Uzbek capital

A statue of King Sejong, the inventor of the Korean alphabet, Hanguel, will go up in Uzbekistan's capital as part of a cultural exchange between two local districts. The office of Seocho Ward in southern Seoul said Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding with the office of Mirabad district in central Tashkent on promoting ties between the two regions. In celebration of the agreement, the two districts will each construct a statue of a historical figure from the other country. The st

July 16, 2021

[Travel Bits] Festivals, sights across Korea

Hanseong Baekje Cultural Festival The Hanseong Baekje Cultural Festival is set to take place in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, from Oct. 6 to 10. The festival celebrates the history and culture of the Baekje Kingdom’s Hanseong era, when its capital was in Seoul. Visitors can travel back in time and enjoy activities. Sponsored by Songpa-gu office and Songpa Cultural Foundation and managed by the Hanseong Baekje Cultural Festival Organizing Committee, the event features folk performances, mus

July 16, 2021

Committee to discuss Korea’s bid for tidal flats as Natural World Heritage

Whether Korea’s tidal flats, or “gaetbeol,” make it onto UNESCO’s list of Natural World Heritage sites will be decided soon as the World Heritage Committee meeting kicks off on Friday. The committee’s 44th annual session is slated to run virtually in cooperation with UNESCO and the host country China. Separated into two groups, Cultural World Heritage and Natural World Heritage, the committee will assess the nominations and decide which sites to include on the Wo

July 15, 2021

S. Korea opens hospitality house for Tokyo Olympics online due to coronavirus pandemic

South Korea opened an online hospitality house for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics amid on-site restrictions stemming from the new coronavirus pandemic, sports authorities said Thursday. The online Team Korea House (www.teamkoreahouse.com) will welcome visitors from Thursday to Aug. 8, to share news on Korean athletes' performances as well as information about Seoul during the Summer Olympics, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. &q

July 15, 2021

Korean folk rock legend to perform at New York’s Lincoln Center

Singer and songwriter Hahn Dae-soo will be performing at Lincoln Center’s “You Are Here” to celebrate the reopening of the center after COVID-19 swept through the US. The Korean Cultural Center New York, a Culture Ministry affiliate, was asked by Lincoln Center to recommend Korean artists for the reopening performance. Hahn Dae-soo, considered a Korean folk rock legend, was one of the artists on the list. “Hahn is an artist who truly understands New York City’s p

July 13, 2021

As Korea goes into semi-lockdown, culture scene scrambles to survive

With social distancing measures in the greater Seoul area raised to the highest in the revised four-tier system from Monday, most musicals have been rescheduled to continue performing while complying with the semi-lockdown rule. Under the Level 4 social distancing in force for two weeks starting Monday, performing arts venues must close at 10 p.m. and the number of audience members for each performance is limited to a maximum of 5,000 with every other seat left vacant, allowing for a group of

July 11, 2021

[Photo News] Marine animals brace for hot summer season

Lotte World Aquarium offers its marine animals special treats before Chobok, which falls on July 11 this year and marks the beginning of the hottest portion of summer, according to the lunar calendar. Asian small-clawed otters enjoy pieces of frozen fruits full of vitamins.  Hawksbill Sea Turtles gather around to eat frozen cabbage and squid provided as special treats before Chobok. (Photos: Yonhap)

July 10, 2021

[Weekender] Explore the heart of Seoul by bike

Biking in Seoul, you can come across historic traces of the city which you may otherwise miss when taking bus, subway or car to get around. Here is a bike-ride course that takes you around the heart of Seoul -- from Deoksugung Palace’s stonewall road to Insa-dong. If you don’t have a bike – don’t worry – the city has a bike rental service named Seoul Bike or Ddareungi, through which you can rent bikes at Ddareungi stations across the Seoul. You can start your bik

July 10, 2021

Giving Korean work a place in global literature

The new head of the country’s literary translation institute is not one for big catchphrases. “I do not want to use the slogan, ‘the globalization of Korean literature,’” said Kwak Hyo-hwan, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s new president, in an interview with The Korea Herald on Tuesday. Rather, he would like to introduce Korean literature as part of global literature. “For this to happen, I feel the need to break existing stereotype o

July 7, 2021

Cafe at Gyeongbokgung under fire for inappropriate comment on social media

Saenggwabang cafe, located inside the grounds of the main palace Gyeongbokgung, has become embroiled in controversy for an inappropriate comment against complaints directed to the cafe on its official social media account. On Tuesday, a comment on a post updated by the cafe’s social media account said, “I hope the cafe will be more cautious about sanitation and hygiene. The folding dining table was sticky, and there was something on the tea kettle. It was a mess.” “I

July 1, 2021

‘We welcome global visiting scholars of Korean studies’

Starting in July, the National Library of Korea will support scholars around the globe carrying out research in the field of Korean studies. As part of its visiting scholar program, private research space has been set aside in the library and Korean studies researchers from abroad will enjoy convenient access to its archives. The program’s aim is to support Korean studies researchers not affiliated with any institution here, so that they can focus on their research activities with the na

June 30, 2021

Metal type blocks from King Sejong’s reign discovered

The Sudo Research Institute of Cultural Heritage has excavated more than 1,600 pieces of metal type blocks from the early Joseon era in Insa-dong in Jongno, central Seoul, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration on Tuesday. “We found around 1,600 pieces of Hangeul and Chinese character metal type blocks,” head of the Sudo Research Institute of Cultural Heritage Oh Kyung-taek said during a press conference Tuesday. “We estimate that the relics are from the 15th to 16

June 29, 2021